Assault Hexeres, Galatian Swords

Description

As centuries passed, naval tactics and needs changed across the Mediterranean. There was a move towards larger ships, partly as an expression of national or dynastic power: the Ptolemaic rulers of Egypt were particularly fond of large ships to show their wealth and influence in a physical way. These 'polyremes', a term meaning many oared, were not suitable for ramming work in battle. In practice many of them had no more oars than smaller ships; what they had were more rowers per oar than smaller ships. A Roman hexareme or Greek hexeres would have a couple of banks of oars with three men per oar, and appear to be an over-sized version of a smaller ship. Even so, thanks to being tremendously heavy and strongly constructed, they were slow moving, and hardly capable of the quick turns needed to take advantage of enemy mistakes. Instead the large ships made use of their wide decks and plentiful carrying capacities and became fighting platforms for infantry and artillery. Boarding or long-range bombardment were the methods to be used to defeat the enemy; naval warfare had come full circle in terms of fighting methods, even if ships had grown significantly.

The fierce and proud Galatians dominated central Anatolia and eastern Phrygia. Having splintered from the migrating Celts following Brennus’ invasions of Macedon and Greece in 279BC, three tribes, the Tectosages, Tolistobogii and Trocmi, moved through Thrace and crossed the Bosporus into Asia Minor. They came as allies of Nicomedes of Bithynia and secured a victory for him in a dynastic struggle against his brother. After a brief and inconclusive war between Nicomedes and the Seleucid king, Antiochus, the Galatians settled down to stay. Their territory was split between the three tribes, each maintaining its own capital, but with a council at Drynemeton, a sacred grove of oaks near the Tectosages’ capital at Ancyra. Ruled by a military aristocracy, the Galatians left the indigenous Cappadocian people in control of their own towns and lands in return for tithes. Galatian mercenaries were highly prized and respected by Greek, Roman and Seleucid commanders. In fact, the personal bodyguard of the Ptolemies of Egypt consisted of Celtic mercenaries, and it is highly likely that these men came from Galatia.